Coffee lovers are willing to pay more for the environment
Coffee lovers face more serious decisions; One is whether or not to buy eco-labelled coffee, which advertises itself as being more ethical and eco-friendly. But whether dealers are willing to pay the extra price for these perks remains an unanswered question.
In a study published in the journal Helion, researchers combined data from 22 studies to conclude that people are willing to pay an extra $1.36 for a pound of coffee produced in an eco-friendly, organic way without the use of chemical pollutants or pesticides contaminating the soil.
Since many people like to buy coffee, the huge social, cultural and economic impact of coffee makes it an ideal candidate for eco-labelling; It is a system that identifies and certifies certain products with ethical and environmental benefits.
Popular eco-labels for organic coffee include COOL labels, and Fair Trade (certification that gives workers fair wages and safe working conditions) and are intended to help consumers make informed choices about food safety, health, and environmental impact.
Having too many eco-label options can confuse buyers, and instead of enticing them to pay for that kind of coffee, too many choices can lead to them avoiding buying eco-labeled coffee.
Several previous studies have attempted to determine the public's opinion of different types of coffee environmental labels. But studies have differed widely in their estimates of how much consumers are willing to pay.
Some studies have found that people are willing to pay more, while others have suggested that people are actually less willing to pay for environmental labeling. As a result, it has been difficult to provide a unified conclusion about the overall effectiveness of environmental labels.
In that study, researchers combined data from 22 studies over the past 15 years, forming a comprehensive data set of 97 observations across Europe, North America, Africa and Asia. By analyzing the results of these studies, the researchers were able to understand the factors that lead to the wide gap in consumers' willingness to pay more, or their lack of willingness and reluctance to pay anything extra for the environmental labeling of coffee.
The researchers found that the difference in previous studies was due to several factors, including the region or country under study, survey methods, types of environmental labels, publication bias, and the tendency to publish studies with only the desired results.
For example, there was a noticeable effect on the results of the studies when survey participants made yes/no choices about which coffee they would buy, when they were given swaps and budget constraints. After taking these factors into account, the researchers found that environmental labeling generally works as As desired, people were willing to pay more for coffee produced in an environmentally friendly manner.
Specific Fair Trade eco-labels had values much greater than zero, but organic eco-labels had the highest value of the three—people were willing to pay an extra $1.14 per pound of coffee for just the organic eco-label. Vary depending on factors such as location.
For example, compared to other regions, people were less willing to pay more for eco-labelled coffee in North America, which may indicate that preference for this labeling system varies across regions. The researchers were also surprised to discover that while people did care about where their coffee came from, they didn't necessarily prefer coffee that was produced near them.
The authors said that their findings still indicate a clear preference among consumers for certain types of eco-labels and that the policy of eco-labelling of coffee is working well in the global coffee market.
Source:1
